Wednesday, July 25
The day started with a trip to the Royal Castle. The castle has been completely rebuilt since it was totally destroyed in World War II. Today the inside and outside appear like they would have in the 18th century.
The public spaces in Royal palaces are typically structured as a series of rooms that lead to the throne room. The closer you got to the king the more elaborately the rooms were decorated. There was a strict protocol regarding who and how you could advance. Only a few people actually made it all the way to the end to see the king. The initial part of our tour followed this same path. Initially we went through a long corridor decorated with paintings of the kings and queens of old. Our path went through several waiting chambers before getting to a grand reception hall. Eventually we found the king’s audience hall. The palace also contained the senate chamber from the 1700s. All of the rooms were filled with tapestries, paintings and sculptures and most depicted the royal family in one guise or another.
The tour continued downstairs to the picture gallery – a series of rooms containing paintings collected by the royal family over many years. Finally we got to the Rembrandt room. Here we saw two of the most beautiful paintings we’ve ever seen. One was “Scholar at his Writing Table” and the other was “Girl in a Picture Frame”. Both were from 1641 and both were in excellent condition. These paintings, along with several dozen more, had recently been donated to the royal palace by a wealthy Polish family. The history of the ownership of these paintings is a little fuzzy but it is likely that at one time they belonged to the royal family and were sold around 1815 when the last Polish king abdicated.
(Scholar at his Writing Table)
After the excitement of the Rembrandt room we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at a fancy restaurant called Polka near the palace. It was highly recommended. We ordered a pork loin stuffed with plums in a cherry sauce, a breaded pork chop served on a bed of mashed potatoes and a side dish of groats made with dill, bacon and onions (groats = Kasha). For fun were ordered some shots of a local Polish vodka. One was flavored with cherry and one with honey. We had a great time eating in an indoor courtyard enjoying a wonderfully delicious meal. Total cost of the meal was $35.00 and that included the tip.
(Breaded Pork with Groats)
After lunch we went back to the palace to see another collection. This was a series of portraits from the late 1700s. We had to buy tickets to see this exhibit at a cost of $6.00. This was a real extravagance considering that we had splurged on lunch.
The exhibit consisted of several dozen portraits painted by Marcello Bacciarelli. He was born and studied in Rome but spent considerable time in Saxony before settling in Poland where he was appointed the royal portrait artist. There were quite a few paintings featuring the king, queen and royal family. Many were of members of the royal court and some were of nobles from other countries that had visited the palace. We liked many of the works on display but thought the two best paintings in the collection were the self portraits from 1788 and 1793. The most famous of the paintings is of the daughter of the king’s secretary entitled, “Julia Duhamel with a Cat”, which was painted in 1781.
(Julia Duhamel with a Cat)
We’d heard a story in Krakow that the ashes of Chopin’s heart were entombed in a sculpture found in Wawel Royal Cathedral. It turns out that his heart is actually in a bottle of brandy and is stored within a sculpture in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw. We headed out to the church to see things for ourselves. We found a monument in the church with a sculpture of Chopin’s face stating that his heart was there. A fuller version of the story (but not the entire story as we heard it) can be found here.
Our next destination was a museum dedicated to Marie Curie. This one was not free. The museum is housed in a building that is very close to the house where she was born and raised. It’s a small museum containing displays of scientific instruments, letters and information on her schooling. It also covered her marriage to and family life with her husband, Pierre.
It’s well known that Marie was one of the first to work with radioactive materials but what is less well know is that she invented some of the first x-ray machines. During World War I she and her daughter took the machines to the front line to provide better diagnostics for the French soldiers.
Marie won two Nobel prizes, her husband one and her children and their spouses won an additional three. Six Nobel prizes in one family is quite a distinction.
Our last stop of the day was back to the Wedel chocolate shop across the street from the Marie Curie museum. Previously we had tried their chocolate and now we had it in our minds to try their desserts. We ordered a scoop of vanilla ice cream served in a glass of chilled hot chocolate and chocolate crepes stuffed with apples, cinnamon and caramel sauce. They were very good but since we’d heard such good things about this place we’d expected something special.
Distance walked: 7.1 miles
Thursday, July 26
We just can’t resist free museums. Today we did three more. The first one was called POLIN – The Museum of the History of the Jews in Poland. It covered the last 1,000 years.
The periods in the Middle Ages were interesting. We learned how the kings invited the Jews to Poland to start trading and how they were granted many rights and privileges unknown in other countries. Things worked out well for quite some time but in the 1800s anti-semitism was on the rise. Eventually we got to the horrors of the 20th century.
In spite of their rhetoric about all men being equal the Soviets continued to persecute the remaining Jewish population in Poland after World War II. What we didn’t know was that in the 1960s and 1970s the Soviets, tired of dealing with the Jewish population, encouraged them to immigrate. Hundreds left the country each year. Most went to Israel but many went to the United States as well.
The museum had a large exhibit about wooden synagogues from Poland, Lithuania and the Ukraine. At one time there were hundreds of these synagogues and they were elaborately decorated with intricate wooden designs and bright colors. All of them were burned during World War II. A husband and wife team has done extensive research on these buildings and published a book about them. Based on their work the museum built a reproduction of one of the most famous ones. Artists from around the world were invited to Poland to help re-create and paint it.
(Reproduction of Wooden Synagogue)
Down the street we went to Pawiak Prison. It was built in 1835 and housed criminals and political prisoners. In 1939 it became a Gestapo prison and part of the death camp system. Many people were tortured and executed there. Near the end of the war the Nazi’s blew up the prison in an attempt to hide their atrocities. Only the front gate and an elm tree standing in front survived. The tree has become a national unity symbol and, when it died in 1984, was replaced by an exact copy made of bronze.
(Bronze Tree Surrounded by Memorial Plaques)
For lunch we went back to Restaurant Zapiecek and had even more potato pancakes but this time they were accompanied by a bowl of spinach served in a garlic infused cream sauce. We washed it all down with home made lemonades. We really like that restaurant!
On our way to the next museum, The National Gallery of Art, we stopped to see a monument to the unknown soldiers from Polish wars. We were just in time to see their changing of the guard ceremony.
The National Gallery of Art primarily showcases modern art. Downstairs there were several exhibits on functional design. Upstairs we saw a number of large rooms featuring individual artists’ work. We enjoyed several of these very much.
Of course this last museum trip was really just an excuse to hit the donut shop one last time. We walked away with six this time. We ate one while we were walking away. It was hot and fresh and oh so delicious.
These last three months have been rather hectic. In Poland we had only one week in each city so we had to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. We averaged 8 miles per day in Krakow and 9.4 in Warsaw – way more than any other city we’ve visited. Frankly, we’re a bit tired and could use a break. We think we’ve earned a little vacation. 😉
Distance walked: 7.6 miles